


Until the Light Goes Out

by ctwriites



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/M, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Pokemon Journey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24608131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ctwriites/pseuds/ctwriites
Summary: Leon watched her go with a slight sigh, looking up at the lizard who sported a knowing look, and he gave him a look in turn as he wondered, “what’s that for?”
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 15





	1. Prologue

Considering he was the star of Galar, he snored like a mutated freight train and chainsaw love child.  
  
Risking another look over at him as she was shoving her feet into her high-tops, the brunette looked away with relief to see her absence wasn’t acknowledged yet.  
  
_‘Yet_ ’ was the word… she prayed to whatever gods could hear her that ‘ _Yet_ ’ would happen after she was back in Postwick.  
  
A snort sounded from the sleeping champion, making her jump slightly and freeze with a quick look over at him, before he went back to his snoring.  
  
Silently blowing her fringe from her forehead in relief, she stood to tiptoe to the door, looking back at him for one last moment. The part of her subconscious that wanted to stay, to curiously see what the outcome of their experience would be in the morning (which was at this point a majority), nagged at her conscious for a second time in the last several minutes that she had taken to get dressed.  
  
No, then she wouldn’t know a moment’s peace… damned news-hounds would never let her show her face in public ever again.  
  
She left the room without looking back again, fearing that if she did she would reconsider it all, zipping to the elevator and smiling gratefully when it _‘dinged_ ’ within moments and she stepped into the empty lift.


	2. the Reunion of the Estranged Not-Lovers

Exhaling in relief when the last of the tomes was put back, the redhead looked elsewhere when the library was otherwise quiet. “Now where’d she go…?” She wondered under her breath, wiping her hands on her jeans and pausing in going to find her assistant when hearing faint cheering coming from behind the counter below.  
  
Leaning over the metal railing as she located her friend watching a match on her phone, she found that if she squinted enough she could see who was facing who… “I thought you didn’t _bother_ with his matches!” The redhead said none-too quietly, smiling when earning the expected response.  
  
“Shit, Sun…” her age-mate yelped, having almost dropped her phone before she snatched it in time, knowing without having to look to see the other was smiling at her expense.  
  
Straightening from her squatting position (she wasn’t a spring Torchic, she realized, as her right knee that she had recently hit gave a sore throb at her movement) she turned to scowl up at her between tucking the green phone into the back-pocket of her trousers. “I thought _you_ were deadset in re-sorting those encyclopedias to fix the order they were in, not spying on me,” the brunette quipped defensively.  
  
Rolling her green eyes as she descended the steps, she wondered, “then what possessed you to watch one of his matches? Thought you two weren’t on speaking terms…”  
  
“We’re not.” She cut in shortly, regarding the curious spark in her eyes, feeling her own ears redden before she continued, “wasn’t my doing, to be fair; Hop sent me the link.”  
  
Sonia paused at that and shook her head with a wry smile weighing on her lips.  
  
The boy was about as subtle as a cannon, but she would admit she was amazed he had convinced his brother’s non-pending pending love interest to watch the mentioned exhibition match. “Typical of him, isn’t it, he always gets giddy when Lee’s matches air,” she mused aloud.  
  
Giving a slight snort of amusement through her nostrils, Ella nodded along. “Him and just about everyone else in the whole region…” she trailed off when a trilling noise sounded from her pocket, and she shared a look with her friend as it didn’t take a psychic to know who was calling. Taking her phone out to tap the screen without looking at the caller, she looked at the screen and said calmly, “Sun and I were just talking about you, you know.”  
  
“ _That was an amazing match!_ ” Hop nearly yelled, prompting an amused smirk from her, his brightened gold eyes seeming to spark and brighten again as he added, _“El, I’m on my way to town, can you meet me at the station? Got a surprise for you!_ ”  
  
Ella’s smirk faltered at that and she cocked a dark brow as she wondered, “ _now_ what’re you plotting…?”  
  
“ _Pretty please, Ella? I promise you’ll love it!”_ Hop wheedled, putting on a puppy-dog expression.  
  
Deadpanning when he did so, once again despising the day he had picked up that little habit, Ella rolled her eyes and sighed. “Just keep your trousers on, I’ll be there shortly,” she conceded, watching with a measure of amusement as he pumped a fist into the air in victory. Ending the video call, she tucked the phone into her pocket again and groaned aloud as she lamented, “I've got a bad feeling about just what kind of ‘ _surprise’_ he’s got planned.”  
  
“It’s nothing scary, I imagine, it’s _Hop_ after all. Besides, you know how eager he gets when he wants to show you something he found.” Sonia reminded, having stooped to pick up her partner who had trodded into the conversation.  
  
Ella paused when the overall-yellow puppy yipped once and gave her one of those adorable grins he was known for, face softening at that, before she sighed through her nose and shot a look at his partner. “D'you have any idea how _unfair_ you are when you bring Yamper into these conversations?”  
  
Sonia only smiled innocently at that and watched her friend hop the counter to leave the room, looking down at the puppy Pokemon in her arms. “Didn’t plan that at all, did you?” She wondered.  
  
Yamper only barked and prompted a giggle from her.

It wasn’t a long walk to the train station, in all fairness. What she _didn’t_ expect was the crowd of onlookers as soon as she got closer, and she was confused as to why they had gathered there.  
  
Wedgehurst, the tiny town only one route’s distance away from her home in Postwick, was hardly a tourist destination.  
  
It had a couple of shops and a Pokemon Center and the train station, but other than that there was nothing to it. Trainers came and went, sporadically, namely via the train only to heal up before going back to whatever venture they were on.  
  
Ella didn’t see much of a reason to be a trainer. She had once thought it was amazing when she and her mother lived in Kalos, but that was when she was eight and daydreamed of meeting all sorts of Pokemon from every region.  
  
She was almost twenty, now, and the Gym Challenge along with the life of a trainer made even less sense.  
  
“Ella!” The familiar tween voice of her friend called the closer she got to the crowd, drawing her from her reverie, and he hopped up and down to get her to see he was at the back.  
  
Hop was the personified epitome of an energy drink, for all intents and purposes, looking more and more like his brother each time she saw him. Granted, with his purplish dark hair and gold eyes he shared with the mentioned trainer, she wagered it was like looking in a mirror.  
  
He grinned an easy grin, a trademark of his, when she went to his side, still bouncy with anticipation. “’Bout time you came, you nearly missed it all,” he greeted.  
  
Smiling back as his excitement was infectious, she ignored his poke and asked bemusedly, “what’s got you _so excited_ you couldn’t wait a sec to give me the details, then?”  
  
Hop started to answer when cheers came from the onlookers around them, and his grin widened. “ _That!_ ” He answered proudly.  
  
Ella looked around a couple of onlookers to first spot a familiar orange dragon Pokemon whose wingspan made him easy to find. Smile faltering from her pretty face as she knew well who the Charizard’s partner was, a dull and bitter feeling formed in her belly as she thought of the last time she had seen him in person.  
  
“Lee!” Hop called as he hopped up and down to be noticed by his sibling who was answering a fan’s question near the front, first being noticed by the fire lizard before the named trainer followed where his partner was looking to spot the other. His widened grin brightened as his brother crossed through the crowd to greet him, stepping up to share a brief hug.  
  
Leon, otherwise dubbed the _‘unbeatable_ ’ champion of Galar, regarded his younger brother with a grin. “Looks like you’ve grown about an inch since I last saw you! Typical of you to come pick me up,” he jibed.  
  
Having been witness to the brothers’ mannerisms for about as long as she had been in the region, Ella couldn’t fight a smile at seeing them reunite.  
  
She slightly started when a scaly snout bumped against her left cheek, looking up at the big cobalt eyes of Charizard, and her smile widened. “I missed you too, big guy,” she laughed, scritching his cheek in return and earning a groan from the beast at reaching that special spot.  
  
“He’s been rather fidgety since he knew we were coming back here,” his trainer supplied with a chuckle at the happy lizard, pulling her back to reality again, his gold meeting her blue with some hesitance as he greeted, “Ella.”  
  
“Leon,” she nodded in turn, cracking a brief and polite smile.  
  
“C'mon then, you two, bet I can beat you back home,” Hop chose that moment to shift gears as he looked between the estranged pair with a playful grin, turning to take off back to Postwick at a sprint.  
  
Ella shook her head before jogging after him, looking back as Charizard followed them to run after Hop, and she laughed when the lizard took to the sky instead. She slowed her jog to walk after the two, glancing at her right as he came to join her, and she quieted as the tranquility of the grassy route started to settle between them.  
  
“Typical of him… I wager with a proper rival to keep him on his toes, he’d be a formidable trainer.” Leon mused aloud, breaking the awkward quiet, and when she glanced at him again he was looking at his brother’s wake with a wry smile in place.  
  
Regarding the hopeful note in his voice, Ella re-rolled the sleeves of her sweatshirt. “I think he is, yeah. He’s got Wooloo trained well enough, at least… and he’s not even twelve,” she supplied, pretending he wasn’t looking at her as she looked at the houses coming closer into view, adding thoughtfully, “he talks up and down about the Gym Challenge, and he’s got zeal for it to boot. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to egg him into doing it.”  
  
Looking briefly to the flowers blooming in her mother’s garden as they were coming closer to his own mother’s house, Leon looked to her again. Her jet black hair was shorter than he had last seen it, cropped into a pixie cut that fit her well, and he thought of when she would laugh freely in younger days. “And you?” He wondered.  
  
Almost stopping at his question, she looked at her mother’s garden as she excused if only to try and change topic, “Mum still needs me, and then I've gotta help Sun maintain the lab…”  
  
“You’re both slower than a Snorlax, you know!” Hop taunted lightly, stopping his sibling from prodding further, smiling at the pair from his place perched on the stone fence of his mother’s house.  
  
“Not all of us are aerodynamically-built, mate,” Ella retorted with a chuckle as she broke away to jog into the yard.  
  
Leon shook his head and shot her a look as he shortly joined them, musing more to himself, “haven’t changed at all.”  
  
“Come on, then, Lee, out with it. You brought us Pokemon, didn’t you?” Hop asked, giddy as if it was his birthday, shifting his weight from one shoe to the other.  
  
“W-wait, what? Neither of you geniuses ever said anything about getting a Pokemon…” Ella perked up and looked between the brothers with a frown, her gaze fixed on the older.  
  
“You didn’t ask, to be fair…” Leon returned first, affording a cheery smile when her frown remained.  
  
“Come on, El, it’s a _Pokemon!_ Told you it’d be a surprise, too,” Hop piled on with a likewise grin in place.  
  
Hating that she was outnumbered, which often happened in the past when she got involved with the brothers, Ella shifted her weight from one boot to the other and exhaled through her nose, flippantly gesturing to her age-mate as she urged, “then hurry it up, esteemed Champion.”  
  
Leon grinned, pleased, brushing off her annoyance as he drew three Pokeballs from his shorts’ belt. “A great gift from a great Champion,” he ignored the barely-stifled snort from the lone girl and let the three creatures free as he added, “c'mon out, you three!”  
  
The first to come out was a monkey with green fur and yellow and brown markings on its face, ears, and feet. The second was a bunny with white fur and orange markings on its ears and feet. The third and final one was a blue lizard with a yellow fin on its head.  
  
“Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble.” Leon introduced as the trio of creatures, babies for all intents and purposes, broke away from each other to play in the yard, looking at the two-man audience to see Hop was ecstatic whereas Ella tried to look indifferent and would have succeeded if she didn’t smile at seeing them play around.  
  
He smiled rather proudly at the expected responses, looking to the trio again. “All right, you lot, line up!” He instructed, watching the trio snap to and present themselves in the named order.  
  
“Hop, you choose first. Your house, your call,” Ella suggested calmly when the named boy looked at her first, gesturing to the three before them.  
  
She would admit they were all adorable, but Hop and Leon were more of experts on Pokemon than she was. She hadn’t even gotten a Pokemon when she was in Kalos, namely because she wasn’t deemed old enough to raise one.  
  
“Grookey, then!” Hop said, causing both his brother and friend to look at him and the now-happy monkey, grinning as he told his new partner, “I’m aiming to be the next Champion so prepare yourself, mate; we’ll be doing some serious training.”  
  
Grookey chirped in response before exchanging greetings with Wooloo who padded up to him.  
  
Ella smiled at the cheery duo, looking at the remaining two and briefly glancing at her phone screen. “Enchanting as all this is, lads, Mum just texted me she wants me home for something. I should go, and er-um, go see what she’s going on about…” she said, sparing a second and brief smile at the three new Pokemon, turning to leave the yard.  
  
“Ella, come on!” Hop pouted at her leave, looking at his brother who watched her walk away.  
  
“Your phone didn’t go off, y'know.” Leon said calmly, watching her stop and he thought he saw her flinch at his keen sight. Folding his arms at his chest, he added, “come on, El, it’s your turn.”  
  
Ella felt her brow twitch at his cool demeanor, a stark contrast to how he would’ve behaved a few years ago, turning to scowl up at him. “I dunno what your _plan_ was, coming back and gracing Postwick with the presence of ‘ _the undefeatable Champion’_ , but it’s _not_ going to work, Leon. I mean, this whole display is meant more for kids than me…” she stalled when a paw tugged on her trouser leg, and she looked away to find the culprit was Scorbunny.  
  
The rabbit smiled cheerily when she met his brown eyes, offering to her the same berry that Grookey had been playing with.  
  
Scowl faltering at the creature’s innocence, Ella shot a look over at the quieted Leon before she took the offering and crouched before the rabbit.  
  
“Thanks, big guy. I’ve never had a partner before, and I guess you haven’t either, have you? But… but if _you’re_ willing to give it a go, then maybe I am, too,” she proposed, tone gentle as she stared into his big brown eyes, her smile creeping back onto her face the longer their stares held.  
  
Scorbunny beamed and hopped up and down with happy chittering, causing her to laugh, hopping into her arms and surprising his new partner as he snuggled into her shoulder.  
  
Ella did little to fight the fond smile at his happiness, straightening with her new friend in tow. “I hope you don’t expect me to do this when you’re bigger,” she gently teased, giggling when the rabbit drew away a bit to pout at her.  
  
“Told you she’d love it.” Hop muttered to his brother with a playful look.  
  
“Acting like a sore loser already, Hops?” Leon elbowed back, smirking at his brother’s pout.  
  
“Neither of you could be subtle even if your lives depended on it.” Ella cut in patiently, smiling in victory as the brothers gave a simultaneous wince.

**Author's Note:**

> right so this is my first Pokefic i started and actually liked, namely because SwSh has kind of half-consumed my life lol. this is my take on my 2nd (?) playthrough of Pokemon Shield. as you read along, you'll find that i've kinda tweaked a few things, but bear with me. 
> 
> thanks for reading, guys!


End file.
